The child was killed when a mortar barrage launched from the Gaza Strip hit a car near a kindergarten in Sdot Negev Regional Council near the Israel-Gaza border, said a spokesperson with the Israeli military.

It is the first Israeli casualty since a fresh round of fighting between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group who dominates Gaza, had started on Tuesday.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed a tough response to the killing, saying "Hamas will pay a heavy price for this terror attack."

The boy was the first juvenile causality to die on the Israeli side since Israel embarked on the operation "Defense Edge" in Gaza. Sixty eight Israelis have died, 64 of them were soldiers.

Israel and Hamas resumed the fighting after the indirect negotiations in Cairo, aiming at achieving ceasefire in the hostility which began onJuly 8, had collapsed on Tuesday.

GAZA, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Three Palestinians were killed, including a woman, and ten injured in an Israeli war jets' airstrike on a house in central Gaza Strip, medics and eyewitnesses said early on Saturday. Full story

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- A senior official of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said here Thursday that a total of 469 children were killed in the Gaza Strip, where the situation is "dire" because of its debilitating effect on the 1 million Gaza Strip inhabitants under the age of 18.Full story

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Friday discussed the crisis in Gaza with several leaders of the Middle East and other key parties, calling for a durable ceasefire.Full story